A few years ago I had the pleasure of listening to a charismatic and engaging speaker named Tony Holler, owner and president of Poplar Grove Winery. As I myself work in healthcare, I found Tony Holler particularly interesting as he left a career in the medical world to pursue his passion in the wine industry.
The inception of Poplar Grove did not begin with Tony Holler though. It started with Ian Sutherland, a high pressure welder and boilermaker by trade, and Gitta (Pederson) Sutherland, a pediatric nurse. Ian and Gitta were wine enthusiasts, wine collectors and amateur winemakers. In 1991 they purchased a 12-acre apple orchard on the Naramata Bench, but the apple industry proved to be a challenging business. Ian and Gitta soon noticed that Hillside Winery, just down the road from them, was thriving. So they decided to remove their apple trees and plant a vineyard. In 1992 they ordered Cabernet Franc and Merlot vines from France and planted them the following year. Poplar Grove would be among one of the first five wineries on the Natamata Bench. Their inaugural harvest in 1995 was just enough for 5 barrels of Cabernet Franc and six barrels of Merlot. Upon the release of this vintage in 1997 the wines won gold and silver at the Okanagan Wine Festival and eventually sold out. The following year Polar Grove sold out within five weeks!
Soon Poplar Grove was producing between 1500 and 2000 cases of wine per year. In 2002, they began to make and sell handcrafted cheeses, which were met with acclaim. Both their wine and cheese programs were small lot productions and the Sutherlands were not driven to grow either business much further. Ian said, “Empire building is not in the cards for us. There’s no appreciable increase in the quality of your life just because you have more employees and more headaches.”[1]
Then the Sutherlands met a man named Tony Holler, a retired emergency room doctor and pharmaceutical entrepreneur. Tony had recently built a home in Naramata and he had planted a vineyard adjacent to Poplar Grove. As neighbours, Tony and Ian became friends. In 2007, when Ian and Gitta made a business decision to separate their wine and cheese business, Tony and his wife Barbara were ready to step in as partners at the winery.
Tony purchased majority holdings and became president of Poplar Grove. He wanted to establish a winery that was sustainable as a business so that it could be passed down from generation to generation. Creating a sustainable business meant increasing production while continuing to produce quality wines. In order to produce quality wines, the Holler’s were of the belief that they would need to start with good fruit, and in order to have good fruit, they felt they needed complete control in the vineyard. Thus Barbara and Tony purchased nearly 100 acres of vineyards, half in Naramata and half on the Osoyoos East Bench, enabling Poplar Grove to make wine using 100% estate grown fruit.
The Hollers also founded a second winery called Monster Vineyards. This winery would have a production facility large enough to process and cellar most of the wines for both Monster and Poplar Grove, with a capacity of 30,000 cases. They would also build a new home for Poplar Grove, a gorgeous 9,500 square foot facility with tasting room and a showcase barrel hall, which opened July 1, 2011. In 2012, a popular Summerland restaurant called Vanilla Pod relocated to Poplar Grove, making the winery an ideal destination for wine lovers.
Today, Tony Holler is still President of Poplar Grove. His wife, Barbara, owns and operates the estate vineyards, while their sons, Andrew and Matthew, manage the vineyards. Stefan Arnason has been the winemaker since 2008, and the assistant winemaker is Natasha Ponich. Poplar Grove uses sustainable farming practices and all the grapes are hand-picked and hand sorted with very little intervention during the winemaking process. Poplar Grove produces six core wines: Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Legacy, and the reds are cellared a minimum of three years before they are released.
I had the pleasure of tasting through some of Poplar Grove’s fall releases recently and here are my tasting notes:
2016 Pinot Gris $18.49
This Pinot Gris is just a great, all around wine. On the nose there is tinned peaches and pears, lemon rind and crushed gravel. The acidity is medium plus. The palate is full of fresh pear, hints of banana and ginger spice, with notes of fresh apricot on the medium finish. This wine paired really well with grilled pork chops and I can easily see it paring with salads, charcuterie, chicken or turkey. It’s also wonderful just on its own.
2014 Cabernet Franc $33.99
This wine is 85% Cabernet Franc, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Merlot. I really loved the nose on this wine. There is cassis, hints of wet, forest floor, bramble, vanilla and really ripe black fruit: cherries, blackberries and plums. This Cabernet Franc is a medium bodied wine with juicy acidity and velvety tannins. On the palate I found red cherries, almond, vanilla, strawberry jam and clove with black plums on the finish. (This wine was decanted for two hours prior to tasting.)
2013 Legacy $47.99
The Legacy is a blend of Bordeaux varietals: 44% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Cabernet Franc, 13% Merlot, 13% Malbec and 3% Petit Verdot. This wine is aged 21 months in French oak and then it had 24 months in the cellar prior to release. The nose comes across as soft and dusty. I found notes of dried cherry, cedar, black plums and blackberries with a hint of something floral. This wine has bright acidity and it is high in tannin but the tannins themselves are quite refined. The fruit on the palate consists of blackberries, black current and plums with clove on the long finish. Those who have the patience to carefully age this wine will be suitably rewarded. (This wine was decanted for two hours prior to tasting.)
Poplar Grove
425 Middle Bench Road North
Penticton, BC
www.poplargrove.ca
Sources
Guest Writer. (July 23, 2013). For Poplar Grove Cheese – A Clean Slate. Retrieve from https://eatmagazine.ca/for-poplar-grove-cheese-a-clean-slate/
McIver, S. (February 16, 2015). Inside Agriculture: Meet Gitta Pedersen. Retrieved from http://www.pentictonherald.ca/business_news/article_cd2742f2-b643-11e4-8ddb-13e534903c3b.html
Morrison, A. (February, 10, 2012). Poplar Grove Winery. Retreived from http://scoutmagazine.ca/2012/02/10/poplar-grove-winery/
Pender, R. (December 12, 2011). Poplar Grove Winery: Pop the Cork. Retrieved from http://montecristomagazine.com/magazine/winter-2011/poplar-grove-winery
Schreiner, J. The Wineries of British Columbia. North Vancouver, BC: Whitecap, 2004.
Schreiner, J. (May 6, 2013). The Second Coming of BC Wineries. Retrieved from https://www.bcbusiness.ca/the-second-coming-of-bc-wineries
Schreiner, J. (August 2, 2013). Poplar Grove and Monster 2013 Wine Releases. Retrieved from http://johnschreiner.blogspot.ca/2013/08/poplar-grove-and-monster-2013-wine.html
Schreiner, J. (October 7, 2014). The Poplar Grove/Monster Vineyards Strategy for Quality. Retrieved from http://johnschreiner.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-poplar-grovemonster-vineyards.html
Staseson, A. (September 17, 2011). Award-Winning Winemakers at Poplar Grove Winery Share Their Methods, Explain the Process. Retrieved from https://www.pressreader.com/canada/vancouver-sun/20110917/302576152499856
Foot Note
[1] Schreiner, J. The Wineries of British Columbia. North Vancouver: Whitecap, 2004, p. 267.